


Take Her

by melodyatmidnight



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate POV, Episode: s01e05 Small Worlds, Gen, Missing Scene, Non-Graphic Violence, or some combination thereof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24031045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodyatmidnight/pseuds/melodyatmidnight
Summary: All of them were killed. All but one. When an entire squad dies for the crimes of a few, why does Captain Jack Harkness get to live?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Take Her

**Author's Note:**

> There’s been a story begging to be written practically since I first saw this episode. So much of it fascinates me, in the fairies and in Jasmine’s gradual transformation. And it left me with questions. Why is Jack alone of the train car spared? How can time-traveling fairies still be too late? This story was the result of those questions.

_“And when we came out of the tunnel…all fifteen men were dead._

_(…)_

_About a week earlier, some of them had got drunk. Drove a truck through a village, ran over a child, killed her. That child was a Chosen One.”_ – Jack Harkness, “Small Worlds”

* * *

_Do you know you’re walking in a forest?_

Simple words, spoken so long ago, not yet spoken.

They were all that mattered. She had known it even then.

They walked in the forest. It was theirs.

Anyone who interfered would disappear. Breath gone, lungs filled, flesh frozen. So easy.

They had what was theirs before they sought it. No one could keep them.

Until the day someone did.

It was perhaps their one error. The intentions and plans of humans they could see. They could stop.

So easy.

But irrational human stupidity…that could not be predicted.

* * *

The fury was overwhelming and all-consuming. In all the millennia, this was the first time. This was always the first time.

There was no hesitation. It was instantly clear within _their_ puny, wretched minds where their future would take them. The perfect opportunity was a week away.

Barely even a step.

They followed the memory of that loud, inebriated laughter to a train car. _Everyone_ had done this, and everyone was there. So easy.

And still there was laughter.

That would change soon.

_Then we’ll be the ones laughing._

* * *

She understood, inside, what Their Own were. What she had once been. But to her, there was no end, no beginning. This had been her ever and always. Flying and laughing and Theirs. Walking in the forest.

There may have been moments where that understanding made itself known. Where memories flickered at the edge of her mind, just as they themselves flickered in the periphery of every eye. Where ties to humanity were nearly believable.

In the moment of that first, _unthinkable_ loss, those memories, those ties, could not have been farther away.

There was a girl forever robbed of them. And they forever robbed of her.

She would enjoy watching these men hurt.

* * *

They arrived silently, in hazy sunlight. Light meant waiting. They had seen the tunnel ahead where their strike would occur.

It would be soundless, instant. No time to realize what was lost. Over between one breath and the next.

Just as the girl’s life had been.

* * *

The first thing she became conscious of was a vague sense of familiarity.

The vagueness itself was odd enough. Her other memories with Her Friends were always perfectly clear.

Something familiar, from another time…

Her reverie was cut short, however, as the light finally faded.

The time had come.

* * *

A fresh surge of fury, and they moved as one. Methodically, systematically taking breath from one, then another, then another another another. Leaving calling cards, warnings, in its place.

So easy.

She was left facing the last one. A symbol on his shirt. She felt her lips curl. _Leader._

Last one.

This would end.

But just as she reached out to strike him down, vague feeling abruptly gave way to a tidal wave of images and sounds, rushing through her mind. Freezing her hand above his throat.

Not just the usual images, the forest and Their Own and What Belonged To Them. Images of a little meadow that slowly became a forest, of playing “down the garden.” A scene of running away, of _do you know you’re walking in a forest?_

A voice that said, _You can see this forest?_

She still hadn’t struck.

She felt the others’ fury hissing at the edges of her consciousness. _Do it!_

Her hand twitched. _He’s important._

 _He’s human,_ came the derisive return. _None are important._

 _This one is, and we know it,_ she was suddenly certain. _He’s the one who lets me go._

The fury surged unanimously. _No one escapes. All responsible. All killed her. All!_

 _Not him,_ she realized. _He couldn’t possibly. He knows about us._

Hissing. _Not yet._

She didn’t owe any human anything. Not even an important one.

And yet…

 _Then he needs to,_ she decided. Appealing. _Make him see it. Let him be afraid and tell the story. So he’ll never forget us…_

The fury hadn’t abated, but they were interested. She knew they would be.

She didn’t owe. She didn’t answer to humans. She took what was hers. They took what was theirs.

So easy.

Only, this time, it hadn’t been.

So maybe it was the memory of the one time a human actually gave them something, instead of carelessly, spitefully taking it away, that made her give one final plea.

_Let him go. Let him let me go._

Any other time, they would have fought her. But perhaps today, it was too close. For all of them.

* * *

The whole exchange had taken less than a second, yet, even so, the opportunity was past. Hints of light were beginning to seep back into the car. The others’ minds thrummed with discontent and still unspent fury, but she also felt their grudging acceptance. She withdrew her hand, and just as quickly as they had entered the boxcar, they swept out.

_Just an illusion…_

_Jasmine._

She cast one last glance back at the man.

_Take her._

She heard his breathing start to pick up.

_There you are then. I let you go._

She followed the others, made the collective jump. Away from here. Back to What Was Theirs.

He wouldn’t forget them.

* * *

They returned. They had never really left. This was their ever and always.

They had what was theirs before they sought it. No one could keep them. Never would again.

Anyone who interfered would disappear. So easy.

They walked in the forest. It was theirs.

This was all that mattered.

Simple words, spoken through time.

_Do you know you’re walking in a forest?_

* * *

Mischievous giggling echoed through the trees.


End file.
